Thales,
leader in information systems and communications security, announces keyAuthority
4.0, the industry's most comprehensive hardened key manager,
providing full support for Key Management Interoperability Protocol (KMIP)
version 1.1. Developed by the OASIS standards body, KMIP will be a
critical enabler of broad enterprise key management that can span
numerous encryption use cases and cryptographic applications.

Enterprises today understand the importance of cryptography to ensure
the security of critical data - both on premise and in the cloud.
However this creates a significant key management challenge,
particularly as the number of applications and devices, often from
different vendors, increases. To combat complexity, unnecessary
operational costs and to ease compliance, valuable operational
efficiencies can be gained by centralizing and automating key
management. The value of separating key management tasks from the
applications that use the keys is further increased in virtualized and
cloud environments, where organizations can retain in-house control of
keys and still take advantage of cloud-based encryption and data
storage. KMIP is the first widely accepted industry standard for key
management allowing organizations to gain these benefits while applying
consistent controls and security policies.

News facts:

With KMIP 1.1 protocol support, enterprises are now able to expand the
numbers and types of encryption applications supported under a single,
unified key management system to achieve consistent security policy,
simplified administration, auditing/reporting and economies of scale.

With the broad industry acceptance of KMIP, customers can deploy key
management solutions to solve immediate needs with the confidence that
they can be extended to support future use cases with minimal impact.
keyAuthority 4.0 provides KMIP-enabled interoperability for
encryption-enabled products from leading vendors including Brocade (News - Alert),
NetApp and Quantum.

keyAuthority 4.0 offers the broadest and most complete support for
KMIP 1.1, combined with market-proven enterprise capabilities such as
the automation of key lifecycle management controls, high scalability,
redundancy, support for multi-tenant environments and sophisticated
administrative role separation and key segregation.

Delivered in a tamper-resistant and tamper-evident hardware platform
certified to the stringent FIPS 140-2 Level 3 standard, keyAuthority
4.0 offers long-term reliable protection of keys on behalf of an
organization's most critical applications and sensitive data.

Rich Mogull, analyst and CEO, Securosis, says:

"Increasing privacy concerns, regulations, use of distributed and cloud
computing, and even BYOD, are all driving increased use of encryption in
more diverse organizations than we have seen before. Sometimes the
encryption implementations do a fine job o handling encryption keys
themselves, but we see plenty of use cases and specific implementations
where it makes far more sense to shift to an external key manager." (Understanding
and Selecting a Key Management Solution, Securosis, February 2013).

"The ability to protect as well as dependably recover encryption keys
used to secure confidential information is absolutely essential, making
the selection of key management solutions a critical component of the
encryption system. Brocade enterprise-class data-at-rest encryption
platforms with its KMIP-compliant key management client are tightly
integrated with keyAuthority to ensure reliability and operational
transparency throughout the key management lifecycle. Together, Brocade
and Thales enable enterprise and cloud service provider data centers to
deploy a comprehensive data encryption strategy with a single point of
management for all encryption services."

"Security of digital data is critical to all of our customers, that is
why Quantum continues to partner with companies like Thales to support
the KMIP standard and give customers the flexibility to choose the right
solution for their business. The keyAuthority high-performance
appliance, combined with KMIP 1.1 support, provides a reliable and
extensible approach for customers seeking a standards-based solution to
key lifecycle management."

Laurent Liscia, OASIS Executive Director and CEO, says:

"KMIP is widely acknowledged to be the key management
interoperability solution. Its success is a testimony to the hard work
and commitment of Thales and the other members of the OASIS KMIP
Technical Committee. We applaud Thales for its role in advancing KMIP
1.1 and look forward to its continued contributions on behalf of open
standards."

Richard Moulds, vice president strategy, Thales e-Security, says:

"keyAuthority is deployed in some of the most demanding environments,
including financial services and government, where high levels of
assurance and reliability are critical. Building on our history of
developing trusted hardware security modules (HSMs) and key management
solutions, and our experience as one of the founders and thought leaders
behind KMIP, Thales is ideally positioned to satisfy partner and
customer requirements for key management systems that can ultimately
support the entire organization."

keyAuthority 4.0 will be available in Q2 2013. See demonstrations of
keyAuthority at the RSA (News - Alert) Conference, February 25 - March 1, 2013 in both
the Thales booth #517 and the OASIS KMIP interoperability showcase booth
#3012.

Thales e-Security is a leading global provider of data encryption and
cyber security solutions to the financial services, high technology,
manufacturing, government and technology sectors. With a 40-year track
record of protecting corporate and government information, Thales
solutions are used by four of the five largest energy and aerospace
companies, 22 NATO countries, and secure more than 80 percent of
worldwide payment transactions. Thales e-Security has offices in
Australia, France, Hong Kong, Norway, United States and the United
Kingdom. www.thales-esecurity.com

About Thales

Thales is a global technology leader for the defence & security and the
aerospace & transport markets. In 2011 the company generated revenues of
€13 billion with 67,000 employees in 56 countries. With its 22,500
engineers and researchers, Thales has a unique capability to design,
develop and deploy equipment, systems and services that meet the most
complex security requirements. Thales has an exceptional international
footprint, with operations around the world working with customers and
local partners. www.thalesgroup.com